Attention Class is in Session

The campfire crackled with tiny embers as the buzzing warm light filled the pitch black forest. Estra and Lim stood besides the fire with bodies lit blue and purple by the vibrant starry night skies.

“Come on, you can do it. Remember what I taught you.”

Estra held up the black grimoire towards Lim, as he attempted to cast a simple fire spell. He read the book while simultaneously concentrating on the spell in his cupped hands.

*Sssttssss*

“It's working… I’m actually doing it. Wait what. No. no. no–”

Small sparks of light appeared above his palm only to vanish in an instant. Lim reoriented himself again, shaking his head clear of sweat as he started over.

“You forgot runes. Magic can be seen as moving bodies of water around. The river is your own mana reserves and the ocean is the world’s mana reserves. You must pull both sides to a centre and capture it. Hence a rune. Without a container the magic would be too volatile to even manifest.”

“Right.”

“Try again.”

Lim this time managed to create small fiery patterns drawing from the illustration from the black book. It is a crude reconstruction that broke apart in only seconds.

“Now you forgot the water. I forgot to mention that this container is made from water.”

“Are you insane? I have to make a container made out of water to carry water?”

“Yes. Simple right?”

Estra chuckled as she munched on some cooked wild animal on a stick. Lim looked at her as if he was about to collapse to the ground.

“Simple. Yeah. Totally.”

*Slap*

Lim smacked his face and began to start over. He took a deep breath and slowly recreated the magical rune.

*Stsssss*

The pattern this time was thicker as he continued to draw the shape from 2D into 3D. It eventually evolved in on itself as if the object warped the surroundings with a shape that defied all logic.

Estra jumped up softly, clapping her hands together.

“Oooh. well done. Well Done. Now try reshaping that container into a fireball… which can’t happen because you messed up.”

“WHAT!”

*Foosh*

The fiery rune created by Lim vanished as his concentration stopped.

“Why? What did I do wrong?”

“Demonic incantations are different from normal ones, remember. Usually you would cast the runes and overlay the subsequent spells after. The base and then the substance.”

“So then I have to create the base and the substance at the same time?”

“Exactly! It is a much harder process but allows for stronger spells that have a harder time being hijacked. Little steps for now. You’ve done great but I think it's time to stop.”

“Aww what? We just started!”

“Lim you barely have enough mana and don’t forget that we’re still on a hunt.”

Lim frowned as he reluctantly followed Estra’s advice.

“Fine.”

***

Another morning came with the distant cries of umbral coloured ravens and the harrowing howls of the ever moving winds. Estra woke up dusting off the last remaining embers of the camp with her feet. She paused with a bewildered look on her face. She smelt smoke even though the fire had been smothered.

“NO!”

Estra turned around to see a large chunk of forest had been set ablaze with Lim sleeping soundly on top of a boulder.

“LIM! You utter idiot!”

Estra clasped her hands together as a large pool of glowing water appeared hovering in her palms.

*Bwooom*

*Splooosh*

Estra threw the orb of water as it burst open in a volley that instantly dosed all the fire in the area. Lim was nicked out of his boulder as he was sent flying towards the ground. He woke up completely cold and drenched with a disappointed Estra looking down.

“Ah!”

“Come on. Let's get you dry, you rascal!”

***

Day 2 of their hunt had started already with a few unexpected problems that Estra knew that she should have expected. Lim was tired and delirious with a constant dumb smile pasted on his face, along with black eye bags that selled his new appearance as a pale vampire. A sleep deprived fool that could not open his eyes for more than a minute.

The pair ventured forth once more, deeper into the heart of the forest with Lim carried by Estra on her back as he soundly slept.

“Were you training all night?”

“Ahum… I did it. I really did it Estra!”

“Hehe… I could tell.”

As they walked Lim talked to Estra half asleep.

“You know I never did say thank you for saving me, what was left of me at least. These past few days brought back some lost memories of that moment.”

“...”

“It felt cold and oh so dark. What really scared me was not the feeling of that dread but knowing the familiarity of it all. Even in the last moment of my lonely life I was scared. I was scared that the last thing I would feel was that cold cage again.”

“I won’t let that happen. Silly I won’t let you go that easy.”

“Why are you so persistent? Why do you make me feel this way? You are the worst. You really are the worst.”

“Hah I guess I am….”

“But really I am grateful for everything—”

Lim dozed off to sleep leaving Estra alone with her thoughts and the inhabitants of the wild forest. She whispered to him with a soft gentle tone.

“Idiot. I’m the one that should be grateful. I always hated it… the thought of being alone without you. Do you know how much trouble you caused me?”

Estra had always felt that she was walking a path parallel to Lim, a world that she could veer into but never touch. He was from tainted opulence and royalty and she was a warrior drenched in blood.

How could she ease his pain? What words could she even use? Is her presence enough?

‘Lim like a fool I partook in the forbidden fruit and while drowning I kept pursuing you. In another time we would have never met so how Lim? How do I reach you? I want to be the one that heals that eternal wound.’

***

The morning sun has risen to its peak as the afternoon heat bloomed down through the sickly slender tree branches. Estra had been walking for hours now, tracking signs of scratch marks on trees that grew more frequent with every step.

She looked up to see intricate charms made out of bones and wood that hung below the canopy. It had flimsy wind flutes that would cry everytime it moved in the wind.

“An elven charm? No a curse. Lim wake up!”

“Ahhh. Huh what?”

“Translate those charms hanging on the trees.”

“Ahh… give me a sec. Sacrifice, Dread, Consume and Abundance.”

“A waking curse? That must be it!”

“What's that?”

“It is a spell that drains all living lifeforce for the purpose of consumption. For example, increased magical power for a ritual. These charms look ancient and almost abandoned. I’m willing to bet that whoever placed these charms eventually abandoned it, leaving it to continuously sap the energy of the forest.”

Lim jumped out from Estra’s back as he lethargically walked alongside her. The hailing screams of the bone whistles grew louder with every gust of wind.

“Estra! Do you think the monster is using the abandoned ritual site as fuel?”

“That's a possibility! Let's go quick and see where this leads to. The longer we wait the stronger it will be!”

Lim ran ahead as Estra trailed not far behind. She could barely concentrate at the task at hand with her eyes glued to his silhouette backlit by the setting sun. It was scary how obsessed she was with him.

She was glued to his silhouette lit by the setting sun. Her eyes could not stray away from him, it was scary how obsessed she was to him

Estra could not comprehend what had enthralled her to be this way. To think that her people’s arch enemy would be the one that she cares for the most.

His presence gave her a warmth that no fire could. Was it his delicate feminine beauty that she felt could mold lovingly into the palm of her hands, or the way his raven feathered hair flowed, or was it the mystery and his love of magic?

Estra knew that out of all these exterior carnal desires, she knew that he cared for her not as the Demon Estra but as Estra the person..

‘To think that it was that simple.’

Estra’s eyes softened as her eyelids relaxed to his charms that were stronger than any succubus’s magic.

‘Even if I'm addicted, the selfish me want more of you still!’